A wide variety of electrical connectors have been designed for terminating flat cables or circuits, such as flat flexible cables, flexible printed circuits or the like. A typical connector, generally designated 20, is illustrated in FIGS. 15–17 according to the prior art. Connector 20 includes an elongated dielectric housing 22 which mounts a plurality of terminals 24 arranged in a side-by-side array. The terminals are generally parallel to each other and are spaced laterally along an elongated circuit-receiving opening 26 into which a flat circuit 28 is inserted in the direction of arrow “A”. Housing 22 may be adapted for mounting on a printed circuit board 30 (FIG. 17), and a pair of metal fitting nails 32 may be used for mounting the connector to the circuit board, such as by soldering the fitting nails to appropriate mounting pads on the board. Terminals 24 have tail portions 24a for connection, as by soldering, to appropriate circuit traces on the circuit board.
An elongated actuator 34 is pivotally mounted on housing 22 for pivotal movement between an open position shown in FIG. 15 and a closed position shown in FIGS. 16 and 17. In the open position, the actuator allows flat circuit 28 to be inserted into opening 26. In the closed position, the actuator biases the flat circuit against contact portions of terminals 24 exposed in the opening.
One of the problems with elongated flat circuit connectors 20 as described above and shown in FIGS. 15–17 is the inability to provide sufficient biasing forces on the flat circuit when the actuator is moved to its closed position. This problem is magnified when the number of terminals increases which, thereby, increases the length of the connector and the resulting length of the actuator. The longer the actuator, the more prone the actuator is to bow between its opposite ends and not apply sufficient pressure to the flat circuit.
A simple solution to the problem of providing sufficient biasing forces by the actuator, would be to simply increase the thickness of the actuator so that it is sufficiently robust to apply adequate pressures. However, with the increasing miniaturization of electronic devices in which such flat circuit connectors are used, such miniaturization requires a low profile connector, and increasing the thickness of the actuator undesirably increases the height of the connector. The present invention is directed to solving these problems or dilemmas by providing a low profile actuator which is magnetized and is drawn or pulled against the flat circuit by magnetic means mounted on the connector.